This disclosure relates generally to mirrors and in particular to mirror assemblies incorporating active materials.
Motor vehicles commonly include minors with which the driver can view the conditions to the sides and/or rear of the vehicle within certain fields of view as dictated by the positioning of the mirrors. The position of these mirrors can be adjusted either manually (e.g., by means of a ball-and-socket pivoting mechanism), or automatically (e.g., using a mechanical or electro-mechanical remote joystick controller). It is appreciated that conventional mirror assemblies, and more particularly, with respect to the present invention, mirror housings incorporate automatic positional adjustment, so as to provide more convenience, and be less labor intensive, and precise in positional control, an actuator is necessary to permit movement of the mirror. Current actuators may have high part counts, loud motors, complex circuitry, and may be expensive to fabricate.
There accordingly remains a need in the art for new and improved mirror assemblies. It would be particularly desirable if these mirror assemblies provided the advantages of automatic mirror assemblies over their manual counterparts while simultaneously offering performance advantages (e.g., fewer parts, quieter, simpler in design, and/or less expensive to manufacture) over existing automatic mirror assemblies.